| Distance | 39.0 km |
| Average Speed | 14.2 km/h |
| Maximum Speed | 27.4 km/h |
Got up just before 07:00 and got away shortly after 11:00. Probably not too bad considering that I wasn’t rushing.
It was about -20°C when I got up, but it soon warmed up with the sun out – another cloudless day – and was probably about -5°C for most of the day.
I started by heading back towards Tilsa and then went from their along the snowmobile trail (now actually an ex-snowmobile trail). Once I reached the official trail and turned north the going got very bad. The surface had been badly broken up by the tracks of the snowmobiles and then frozen into lumps. It was like driving on gravel with the odd brick sized rock thrown in for good measure.
I turned off as soon as I could onto a forest road leading towards the top of the canyon trail and then sharp right onto the trail towards Lohilampi which I was intending to cross. Unfortunately, when I reached the entrance to the lake there was no track to follow so I couldn’t cross it. However there is now another trail towards Jänisvaara slightly further north so I was able to go that way instead.
I arrived at Jänisvaara at about 14:00 for a late lunch having done more than 25km.
After lunch I headed south with a lighter sled towards the Tilsa road and turned right. I soon reached the junction with the main trail and just as I did so two snowmobiles appeared. The driver of the first one got off to speak to me and turned out to be Swiss Robbie who I haven’t seen for five years. We agreed that I would drop round to see him when I am back at the kennels.
Continuing back to the cabin, I decided to try to drive to the top of Jänisvaara hill. This turned out to be possible, but only because a single snowmobile had recently driven up, turned round and come back down again. The normal trail in from the east didn’t seem to have been used at all.
I got back to the cabin shortly after 15:00 and set about the usual tasks of lighting the fire, fetching water etc. The inside of the hut was below freezing when I arrived and as usual the kitchen area took quite a long time to warm up.
Jänisvaara is showing serious signs of needing some renovation. Obviously the door still sticks, but it has been doing that for 20 years and everyone is used to it. More significant are simple but very annoying things like the sink draining into a bucket rather than outside as it used to many years ago. This could be fixed by some simple plastic plumbing.
Timo delivered my evening meal and over my maps we discussed my options for tomorrow.